My original interest in this lady came about when a friend and I drove by a highway sign, pointing the way toward a memorial for Nancy Ward. Unfamiliar with the name and with a little time to spare, we decided to investigate. I was surprised to learn someone with a name which sounded so English turned out to be a 100% Native American. Sometime later, I was even more surprised to learn her daughter had some connection to my own family’s history. Since this is a blind entry, I’ll leave that story for another time.

Nancy Ward was a Native American Cherokee born near the southeastern border of Tennessee in 1738. Her original Cherokee name was Nanyehi meaning, “one who goes about.” She was a member of the Wolf Clan. When she was a young teenager, she married Tsu-la or “Kingfisher,” who was a member of the Deer Clan.

In 1755, when she was just 17, war broke out with a traditional enemy, the Muscogee or Creek tribe. During the battle, she stayed by her husband’s side. The story is told she chewed the bullets so the ammunition would have jagged edges and inflict more damage. I was surprised to learn the Indians were fighting with rifles. I did some research and found as early as 1673, English settlers came to her village of Echota, the East Tennessee capital of the Cherokee Nation, to establish trade relations. Among many other European goods, guns and ammunition, were exchanged for native deerskins, beeswax, and river cane baskets.

Nanyehi’s husband was a leader, but he was killed in the battle. Nanyehi picked up his rifle and took his place. As the leader, she was able to achieve the victory for the Cherokee people. Because of her bravery, the tribe gave her the title of Ghigau meaning Beloved Woman or War Woman. This was a title she would hold for life. The title was considered a great honor, and she became a political leader of her people and was the only woman to have a vote at their council meetings.

In 1758, Nanyehi married an Irish trader, Bryant Ward. He had fought in the French and Indian War and had taken up residence with the Cherokee people. At that point, she became known as Nancy Ward. She already had two children by her first husband. She and Ward had one daughter named Betsy, who would later marry the American general, Joseph Martin. The Cherokee didn’t consider marriage a lifetime institution, nor apparently was polygamy a problem, as Ward was still married to his English wife. Later, Ward left and returned to his former wife.

Because of her Beloved Woman title, the Cherokee authorized Nancy to become an ambassador and negotiator for her people. Nancy had learned the art of negotiating from an uncle who was an influential Cherokee chief. Nancy was among the leaders who met with an American delegation led by John Sevier to discuss American settlements in Tennessee. Sevier was surprised and impressed to find a woman in a position of negotiating and speaking with authority among the Indian tribes. She was equally surprised there were no American women in a position to speak. Ward is credited with having secretly warned Sevier at the meeting of the Watauga Association of settlers of an impending attack by Cherokees, in July 1776.

Later, because of her title, she was in a position to choose to have a captured person freed.  She was able to keep a white woman captive from being burned at the stake. In return, her village of Echota was spared destruction by frontier militia that swept through the Cherokee territory. Again, Nancy chose to warn of a Cherokee uprising in 1780 and to prevent retaliation by militia forces. She made a notable plea for mutual friendship at the negotiation of the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785. 

The white woman whom Nancy saved from death became her friend. The lady was able to rescue some cattle from her former homestead, and she introduced Nancy to farming and the use of milk and dairy products. Nancy, in turn, introduced this to her people and encouraged them to farm the land.

Nancy made many impressive speeches at meetings between the US Army leaders and the Cherokee, always trying to negotiate peace. She encouraged her people not to sell their land, but to farm it instead. She was active in negotiating many treaties.

During the 1790s, Nancy came to be known as Granny Ward because she took in and provided for a number of children. At the same time, she observed enormous changes taking place within the Cherokee nation as her people adopted the commercial agricultural lifestyle of the nearby settlers leaving no real place in the new Cherokee government for a Beloved Woman.

She saw a vision of what would take place nine years after her death, when so many of the Cherokee would be forced from their homes and were marched on a westward migration under President Andrew Jackson. She warned her people what would happen and that many would die if the Cherokee agreed to sell their land. Her vision came true between 1831 and 1833 in what became known as the Trail of Tears.

The Hiwassee Purchase of 1819 had forced Ward to abandon her village. She moved south and settled on the Ocoee River near the present-day town of Benton, Tennessee. There she operated an inn on the Federal Road until her death in 1822. There is a monument and museum there to honor her memory.